1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a novel Internet-based method of and system for educating consumers and marketing branded products and services thereto within both electronic physical and retail environments.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Presently, an enormous amount of time, money and effort is expended daily by thousands of manufacturers and retailers to market, brand, advertise and sell their products and services to consumers in both regional and global markets. Prior to the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW), based on the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and the Hypertext Transmission Protocol (HTTP) invented by Tim Berners-Lee, et al., conventional marketing and advertising systems and methods used print, radio, and television based communication mediums to communicate messages to consumers in the marketplace.
Since the development of the WWW and its enabling information file formats and communication protocols, a number of Internet-based advertising systems and networks have been developed and deployed in the world of consumer product and service advertising and promotion. Examples of commercially-available Internet-based advertising and promotion systems include: the Open Ad Stream™ (5.0) Internet Advertising Sales, Advertising-Management Software Technology And Media Services Network by RealMedia, Inc.; the DoubleClick™ Internet Advertising Sales, Advertising-Management And Media Services Network by DoubleClick, Inc. which employ its proprietary DART™ technology for collecting and analyzing audience behavior, predicting which ads will be most effective, measures ad effectiveness, and providing data for Web publishers and advertisers; the Adfusion™ Integrated Advertising Marketing, Sales and Management System by Adfusion, Inc., which integrates all phases of the media buying process including media research and planning, media inventory and yield management, secure online negotiation, the transaction execution, and tracking and post-campaign reporting; and the Promotions.com™ On-Line Promotion System by Promotions.com, Inc., formerly Webstakes.com, which develops customized online promotions for clients providing technology and consulting services necessary to run the promotions on clients' own Web sites, and offering direct marketing e-mail services using a database of customer profiles.
Recently, two principally different methods have been proposed for providing product information to consumers over the Internet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,193 to Wellner discloses a system and method for accessing and displaying Web-based consumer product related information to consumers using a Internet-enabled computer system, whereby in response to reading a URL-encoded bar code symbol on or associated with a product, the information resource specified by the URL is automatically accessed and displayed on the Internet-enabled computer system. While this system and method enables access of consumer product information related information resources on the WWW by reading URL-encoded bar code symbols, it requires that custom URL-encoded bar code symbols be created, printed and applied to each and every physical product in the stream of commerce.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,773 to Hudetz, et al discloses a solution to the problem presented by the system and method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,193. This solution involves the use of a UPC/URL database in order to translate UPC numbers (and other unique codes) read from consumer products by a bar code scanner, into the URLs of published information resources on the WWW relating to the UPC-labeled consumer product.
Like U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,773 to Hudetz, et al, WIPO Publication No. WO 98/03923 discloses the use of a UPC/URL database in order to translate UPC numbers read from consumer products by a bar code scanner, into the URLs of published information resources on the WWW relating to the UPC-labeled consumer product. Current commercial realizations of this general information access technique include: the PaperClick™ Print-To-Web Information Access System by Neomedia Technologies, Inc., of Fort Meyers, Fla.; and the AirClic™ Wireless Print-to-Web Media Consumer Product and Service Information Access System by Airclic, Inc. of Blue Bell, Pa.
While U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,773 and WIPO Publication No. WO 98/03923 both provide an effective solution to the problem presented by U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,193 to Wellner, et al., these prior art references and systems completely fail to recognize or otherwise address the myriad of problems relating to UPC/URL-link collection, management, delivery, access and display along the retail supply and demand chain, which must be first solved in order deliver a technically feasible, globally-extensive, UPC-driven consumer product information system for the benefit of consumers worldwide.
For over a decade, several years before the development of the WWW, both General Electric Information Services (GEIS) formerly a division of General Electric (GE) Corporation, and Quick Response Services (QRS), Inc. of Richmond, Calif. have maintained independent consumer product information databases based on the retail industry standard Universal Product Code (UPC) numbering system. These consumer product information databases, branded as the GEIS UPC Express® Product Catalog (recently renamed the GPC Express® UPC Product Catalog), and the QRS Keystone™ UPC Product Catalog, are each maintained as a large-scale RDBMS that is connected to secure value-added networks, referred to as VANs, as well as the infrastructure of the Internet, as shown in FIG. 2B, and thus are easily accessible by retailers using Internet-enabled client computers. These UPC Product Catalogs contain “supply-side related” information records on millions of consumer products from thousands of manufacturers selling their products to retailers along the retail chain, at wholesale prices, terms conditions. The supply-side related information contained in these centralized UPC Product Catalogs are locally maintained by the manufacturers (i.e. vendors) using conventional UPC management software, as developed by Intercoastal Data Corporation (IDC) of Carrollton, Ga., and BarCode World, Inc. These manufacturer-managed UPC Product Catalogs are then periodically uploaded to GEIS's and/or QRS's centralized UPC Product Catalogs, using electronic data interchange (EDI) processes carried out between each manufacturer's UPC Product Catalog and the centralized UPC Product Catalog. The purpose of such uploading operations is to update these centralized UPC Product Catalogs with current and accurate pricing and shipping information required by retailers who visit these centralized UPC Product Catalogs, download the UPC Product Catalogs of their manufacturer trading partners (or portions thereof), to review current product offerings and wholesale prices, terms and conditions, and thereafter purchase desired products from the downloaded manufacturer's UPC Product Catalog using conventional EDI-enabled electronic-commerce (EC) transaction techniques. In essence, the primary function of these centralized UPC Product Catalogs is to enable B-2-B EC transactions between retailers and manufacturers (i.e. vendors) so that retailers can maintain a supply of products in their inventories sufficient to meet the demand for such products by consumers along the retain chain.
In addition to such centralized UPC Product Catalogs described above, these network administrators (GEIS and QRS) use information collected from B-2-B EC-transactions enabled by their centralized UPC Product Sales Catalogs, to provide a number of other solutions to problems relating to electronic commerce (EC) merchandising and logistics within the global supply chain. Such ancillary information services include, for example: Sales, Analysis and Forecasting Services providing retailers with information about what products consumers are buying; Collaborative Replenishment Services for determining what products retailers can buy in order to satisfy consumer demand at any given point of time; and Transportation and Logistics Information Services for providing retailers with information about when products purchased by them (at wholesale) will be delivered to their stores. Such information services are offered to retailers on a global basis through VANs and the Internet.
While the above-described supply-chain information management and delivery systems and services collectively cooperate to optimize the process of moving raw materials into finished products and into the hands of consumers, such supply-side information systems fail to address the information needs of the consumers of retail products who require and desire product-related information prior to, as well as after, the purchase of consumer-products. Moreover, such systems and services fail altogether to address the problems facing manufacturer marketing, brand and product managers, and their advertising and promotion agents, as well as retailer marketing and product managers and their advertising and promotion agents working along the demand-side of the retail chain.
In many respects, the Brand Marketing Communications industry has come a long way over the past twenty years. Advances in cognitive psychology and technology have helped to drive the industry forward at a very fast rate. Also, the development of Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has also played a major role in redefining the structure of the global marketplace and how Consumers can learn about and make their product and service purchases.
Brand managers increasingly regard the Internet as the potential ‘holy grail’ to communicate personalized messages to target audiences, and monitor their responses in real time. However no one has yet found online tools that capitalize on the Internet's interactivity, and allow marketers to communicate powerful, consistent brand messages and images to shoppers throughout the web.
Solutions remain elusive because marketers have a complex set of online needs. First, they must be able to collaborate with e-tailers and other Internet trading partners on marketing campaigns in order to ensure that shoppers receive consistent messages that reinforce the brand at every turn.
Unfortunately, the Internet's built-in frictions between brand managers and their trading partners often prevent this important collaboration from taking place. Because e-tailers control the amount of space and type of information the consumer views on the e-tail site, brand managers cannot present a unique brand experience to shoppers at the Internet's most critical points-of-sale. E-tailers may also discourage links to a brand's own Website that provide a shopper with more in-depth information, because they may risk losing the sale when the shopper leaves their sites. Finally, the retailer's multi-channel strategy, which caters to consumers whether they are shopping online or offline in traditional retail stores, works against the interests of pureplay e-tailers. These e-tailers receive the online traffic, but may lose sales to brick-and-mortar retail stores.
The Internet is anything but collaborative in this tense climate. Communication among trading partners is poor. Consumers may receive conflicting promotional offers from different agents, and resellers may receive outdated pricing about various products. Worse, the marketing industry lacks the dedicated technology to connect the brand manager, e-tailer and other online trading partners in a collectively beneficial network that would facilitate comprehensive changes in marketing campaigns.
Another difficult challenge brand managers face is communicating with the Internet's price-driven, task-oriented shopper who has long since tuned out the clutter and noise in the Internet marketplace. E-tailers have also worked very hard to engage the online shopper, with improved product information, site design and overall user experience. Unfortunately, shopping cart abandonment continues to be one of the most enduring problems facing e-tailers and brand managers, with unfinished online transactions projected to reach an estimated $6.3 billion in losses in 2004.
Clearly, the Internet still lacks the compelling shopping experiences that would make an impatient consumer feel a product was worth the hassle of following the checkout process through to purchase. Marketers continue to search and experiment with ways to fully engage the savvy, price-driven shopper at the point-of-sale.
Finally, brand marketers must contend with technology like comparison sites, which have rapidly grown in popularity in just the past year. These shopping tools convert brands to commodities and inhibit the marketer's brand building efforts with consumers on the Internet.
The result is that the savvy, aggressive online consumer rules a price-driven Internet marketplace, where e-tailers and brand managers are reactive. In order to gain traction in the online sales channel, brand managers and e-tailers must engage this shopper in an information-rich shopping experience that motivates the online shopper to consider purchases based on compelling brand information as well price and promotion deals.
Current dynamics in the Internet marketplace present several major challenges to brand managers in their efforts to build strong brands online:
Building Online Brands on Real Time With Consistent Messages Across Multiple Touch Points
To build a strong brand presence, consumers must receive consistent messages and images about a brand, and this is extremely difficult for brand managers to control on the Web. Brand building assets created by manufacturers are commonly arranged and presented by a range of trading partners on e-tail sites and other Web touch points to deliver inconsistent brand messages and images to consumers. As a result, consumers often receive conflicting promotional offers from different agents, and resellers may receive outdated pricing about various products.
Building Collaboration Among Partners in an Inherently Divisive Environment
Brand managers must collaborate with their agents and retailer trading partners to ensure that shoppers receive consistent messages that reinforce the brand at every turn. The Internet's built-in friction between brand managers and their trading partners compounds their difficulties.
E-tailers control the amount of space and type of information the consumer views on the e-tail site, and brand managers cannot present a unique brand experience to shoppers at the point of sale. They must communicate their brands predominantly through the space they rent on e-tail sites, which is cluttered with other brands. Consumers have limited access to the information they seek before purchasing certain products on these sites, but e-tailers frequently also discourage links to a brand's own with in-depth information, because they may lose the sale when the shopper leaves their site. Finally, the retailer's multi-channel strategy, which encourages the shopper to buy the brand in a variety of sales channels, works against the interests of pureplay e-tailers. These e-tailers receive the traffic, but lose the sales to brick-and-mortar retail stores.
The Internet is anything but collaborative in this tense climate, and communication among trading partners is poor. Marketers often lack the technology that would enable them to communicate effectively with these partners. There are no specific processes and/or dedicated technology in place connecting the brand manager, the agency, and the e-tailer to make any major, comprehensive changes in marketing campaigns. As a result, outdated product information, conflicting promotional offers or other incorrect brand information are frequently circulated among trading partners.
Communicating With Savvy, Impatient Online Shopper to Develop Brand Loyalty
Although brand managers invested $7.2 billion in 2003 in online advertising, shoppers continue to gravitate to the brands they interact with offline; the bulk of the year's retail sales remained with the top brands with a strong offline presence. According to the Gartner Group, the average shopper decides what s/he wants before going online, then starts and finishes a session within fifteen minutes. Despite a continual lack of success influencing the online shopper, however, 70% of brand managers in a recent Forrester study said that they would increase their marketing budgets another 5% in 2004.
E-tailers, too, have been working very hard to engage the online shopper in the last two years with improved site design and overall user experience. Yet studies still say the second major reason online shoppers abandoned their carts, after prohibitive shipping costs, is because they changed their minds. Clearly, sites still lack the compelling shopping experience that would make an impatient consumer feel a product was worth the hassle of following the checkout process through to purchase.
Guarding Against Brand Erosion in Price-Comparison Environments
Finally, brand marketers must contend with online technology like price comparison sites that threaten to erode brand value. Consumer shopping tools such as Yahoo!'s comparison shopping site, inhibit marketers in their efforts to build brand value with consumers on the Internet, by encouraging consumers to shop for products in a category by price.
Given these major challenges, it is no surprise that brand managers have been generally unsuccessful to date building strong brands online.
Brand managers and e-tailers must create an information-rich shopping experience that motivates the online shopper to consider purchases based on compelling brand information as well price and promotion deals. Current online advertising and systems integration players in the marketplace serve various portions of this need, but no one has considered or developed a way of and a means for giving the brand manager effective online advertising tools that build brand, and the collaborative technology that enables them to communicate consistent brand building images and messaging to consumers anywhere along the WWW.
In short, brand owners need a new way of and means for addressing several problems in both electronic and physical streams of commerce, namely:
(1) Brands are frequently misrepresented or weakened online because online trading partners usually control or manage the representation of brand images and messaging;
(2) Communication between online trading partners and brand owners is frequently poor;
3. Technology that promotes communication and collaboration between brand owners and trading partners is limited and cost-prohibitive; and
4. Online price comparison environments erode brand value.
As businesses become increasingly commoditized, one of the few sustainable areas for differentiation and competitive advantage is in the customer experience created and relationship formed when a company touches its customers.
While historically most touchpoints have consisted of humans interacting with humans, as technology has evolved, and as people are more comfortable interacting with technology, more of a company's touchpoints occur as customers interact with machines (phone systems, websites, kiosks, etc.), along their sales and marketing channels, in the form of Front Office Systems.
The revolution that is currently taking place in the front office systems is making it essential that companies think holistically about their “interface systems”.
This is achieved by creating the right interfaces for each customer segment and each customer situation, and aligning all of the organization's interfaces in their front office systems so that a customer's interactions are consistent, complementary, and result in deepening the customer's relationship with the company.
Retailers need to deliver same quality experiences anywhere online and in physical stores. Consequently, retailers spend $2 billion each year, in all categories on technology and third party services. In 2004, the average retail IT budget grew to $239 million.
Currently, Manufacturers are not able to efficiently manage their brand information and service interfaces at all touchpoints. Consequently, manufacturers are experiencing great difficulty differentiating their product brands online, and communicating brand value at points of display and sale.
Consequently, both manufactures and retailers are forced to compete on price alone, and their profit margins suffering.
At the same time, consumer acceptance of affiliate programs is growing, and retailers are trying to support as many affiliate programs as possible to reach as many consumers as possible online. Also, retail merchants are getting closer to their affiliates, with greater communications between each other.
In view of current market conditions, the big challenge is: HOW can Retailers deliver valuable product information and customer service at BOTH online and offline touchpoints, in a seamless manner with the retailer's environment, without incurring significant bottom line costs, while manufacturer brands are empowered to manage their brands and drive commerce anywhere along the fabric of the Web, so that:                Manufacturers and Retailers both benefit from the capacity of Manufacturers to differentiate their products and services and communicate brand value at points of display and sale, in both online and brick and mortar stores;        Consumer purchase decisions are based on Brand Value, and not price alone;        Manufacturers and Retailers enjoy premium value for their products and services in the marketplace; and        Manufacturers and Retailers can drive commerce along new areas of the expanding Web, such as lifestyle sites and weblogs, via e-commerce enabled affiliate programs that they can easily track and control?        
In view, therefore, of the above, it is clear that there is great need in the art for an improved method of and apparatus for enabling brand owners to manage (command) and tightly control and deliver product and service related brand merchandising and marketing communications to consumers, and enable product and service transactions anywhere along the World Wide Web (WWW) in both physical and electronic retail shopping environments, while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art systems and methodologies.